Society and Politics

• More people died in 2020 than in any year for over a century. Official figures show there were 697,000 deaths in the UK in 2020. This is the highest annual total since 1918, the year of the Spanish flu pandemic. However, when the figures are adjusted for population growth and demographics, the mortality rate is lower than for each of the years 2001-2009. While many excess deaths are attributable to Covid-19, other contributors include missed cancer diagnoses and treatments, untreated chronic illnesses and suicides due to the lockdowns. Indeed, in England and Wales, more than 40,000 extra deaths occurred in private homes since the start of the pandemic, of which just 10% directly involved Covid-19.
• Healthcare workers most likely to refuse Covid vaccine. Recent polls suggest that vaccine hesitancy is highest, not among the general population, but among doctors and nurses, more than half of whom say they don’t want to be given the Covid-19 vaccine. They fear long-term side effects from vaccines that have been tested for less than a year, and some nurses are concerned that the vaccines will stop them from conceiving when they want to start a family. In Germany, half the nurses and around 25 percent of the doctors surveyed said they won’t have the Covid jab. Similar patterns have been seen in the US and in France. Vaccine hesitancy is also growing among the general public. Read more here
• Prison chaplain loses legal action after exposing influence of Muslim gangs in UK prison. A Christian prison chaplain, with over 20 years service at HMP Brixton, was denied a judicial review by the High Court on Tuesday, after being banned indefinitely from working in London jails in 2018 for exposing the influence of Muslim gangs at the prison in The Mail on Sunday. Paul Song claimed he was left in a state of near-constant fear after Muslim gangs came to dominate the South London jail. He described one chilling incident when a small group stormed his gathering in the chapel and began loudly praising the jihadis who hacked soldier Lee Rigby to death in the street. When an imam took over as HMP Brixton’s head chaplain, he banned the pastor from the jail. After an appeal, Song was later re-instated, but was later banned again. Read more here . Part of National Trust collections on their colonial links. Copyright @ National Trust
• Children called in to lecture National Trust staff on colonial and slave-trade links. National Trust bosses have come under fire in a fresh ‘woke’ row after it emerged they drafted in schoolchildren to lecture staff and volunteers on the colonial and slave-trade links of some of the charity's country houses. So-called child advisory boards were brought in to deliver ‘reverse-mentoring’ sessions at a number of historic properties as part of a scheme to ensure the impact of their background could be fully explained to visitors. Staff were lectured on imperial history by schoolchildren who have been taking part in the Trust's Colonial Countryside project in conjunction with Leicester University academics. Read more here.
• Scotland’s £500 NHS bonus to be funded by UK Government Covid grant. Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon unveiled a pledge to pay a £500 bonus to NHS workers in Scotland at the SNP’s virtual party conference in November. It transpires that the generous £180 million pledge will be funded by the UK Government Covid grant. The scheme means that highly paid doctors and ¬managers will pick up the £500 bonus, as well as thousands of staff in non-Covid departments whose workload has not increased during the past year. Meanwhile low-paid frontline workers, such as refuse collectors, school cleaners and pupil support staff, won’t receive a penny. Read more here.

World in Focus

• A time for US evangelical Church to reflect and refocus. Donald Trump faces impeachment for the second time as President of the United States, just days before he is due to leave Office, after Vice-President Mike Pence rejected calls to invoke the 25th Amendment and have him forcibly removed. Pence, a committed Christian, quoted Ecclesiastes 3:1 (“for everything there is a season … a time to heal.. and a time to build up”), before declaring, “now is the time for us to come together, now is the time to heal." Pence, who has been praised for his response to the storming of Capitol Hill, received a personal invitation from Joe Biden to attend his inauguration on Jan 20th. Meantime, opinions among US believers remain as disparate as those of Americans as a whole, with many shocked, confused or angry at events of recent weeks. There have been increased calls for healing and unity, and the following of Jesus Christ rather than any individual person.
• Church in Paranaque city, Philippines (Reuters/Romeo Ranoco)Teen Muslim extremists attack church in Philippines with gunfire. A Muslim extremist group, primarily made up of teenagers, attacked a church in the Philippines, peppering the building with bullets. The Islamic State-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, a terrorist group based in the southern Philippines, attacked a parish church after conducting a raid on the town’s military and police outposts. The terrorists also opened fire at local houses, sending residents running to safety or cowering in their homes. Read more here.
• Local Christians & foreign missionaries falsely blamed for Covid resurgence in China. In China’s Hebei province, local Christians and foreign missionaries are being blamed for a resurgence of Covid-19 infections that resulted in a strict lockdown enacted on Jan 6. But locals say the ‘Catholic village’ blamed for the outbreak contains hardly any Catholics, and no church. A priest said the blame-shifting reminded him of Emperor Nero, who looked for a scapegoat for his own misdeeds and persecuted Christians as a result. Read more here.

Israel and the Middle East

• Top Islamic cleric says Israel belongs to Jews. The head of the Council of Islamic Ideology in Pakistan has gone on the record to acknowledge that Israel “belongs only to the Jews…..Educated Muslims need to understand that the Quran and history prove to us that the Land of Israel belongs only to the Jews”, he stated. “King David built the house of God in Jerusalem for the Israelis and not for the Palestinians.” The cleric’s credentials are believed to give the announcement even greater weight as they are rooted in Islamic theology. Read more here.
• How Israelis save the lives of Gaza children. Save a Child’s Heart is a one-of-a-kind Israeli organization that gives children a second chance at life. “Every year, Save a Child’s Heart gives free heart surgeries to children from Gaza and the world,” a spokesperson for the online magazine, Israel21c recently reported, “helping to spreading the word about an organization that saves the lives of children from around the world. It’s an undertaking that changes the lives of everyone involved”. To gain a moving insight into the work of this ministry, watch the 8-minute video on this website.